When Pei Jing reached Cangmang, people were carrying the survivors up the road the fold had once bypassed. One stretcher had a door for a bed. On it lay a boy who had been riding with his mother. His name was Ke. He told the healers which wagon she had been in. They had to ask him twice before anyone wrote it down.
Pei Jing told the watch captain that he had let Zhao reach his talisman. The captain stopped writing. She asked him to say it again, and he did.
Across the yard, Squad Leader Wu sat with a broken rib and read the names of his dead. The four fronts had lost 2,142 people even before the fold went dark. The council had taken the Azure Cloud and Heavenly Sword grain stores for their families. It had promised fifty years of allotments, with council farms to make up the rest. The families from the crossing came to the same table to give their names.
Sister Yu sat in the doorway of the hospital with her hand wrapped. She had lost two fingers. Han read the list of breathing patients while she told him which ones could manage water. Bai had asked to see her when he was strong enough to get out of bed.
